Shea Langeliers on Tuesday hit three home runs, including a two-run drive in the ninth inning that lifted the Oakland Athletics over the Texas Rangers 4-3.
Langeliers, a 26-year-old who entered with 29 career major league homers, hit solo drives in the second off Nathan Eovaldi and in the seventh against David Robertson.
“It feels good to get something like that when you’re seeing the ball that good,” said Langeliers, who attended nearby Keller High School and played about 160km south of Globe Life Field at Baylor.
Photo: AFP
On the winning homer, he said he was “just trying to be aggressive in the middle of the plate.”
The A’s have won three of their past four games, improving to 4-7.
“We’re kind of playing relaxed and free right now, just going out there and giving it all we’ve got and seeing what happens,” Langeliers said.
Last season, Oakland’s fourth win had the A’s at 4-16 on April 21 en route to a franchise-worst 50-112 record.
“We’ve played better baseball since the start of the season, when we kind of got off to an unnerving start,” Oakland manager Mark Kotsay said.
World Series champions the Rangers (6-5) are on their first losing streak of the season, at three games.
“We ran into a guy that just had a huge night,” Rangers manager Bruce Bochy said.
Texas led 3-2 in the ninth inning when Seth Brown walked with one out off Jose Leclerc (0-2) and Langeliers sent a first-pitch fastball to left-center for his fourth home run this season.
It was the first three-homer game for Langeliers, who hit a pair on Oct. 2, 2022, at Seattle and on Aug. 23 last year at the Chicago White Sox. The only other starting A’s catcher to hit three homers in a game was Mickey Cochrane in 1925.
Langeliers tied the score 1-1 when he homered on a splitter from Eovaldi and 2-2 when he connected on a knuckle-split from Robertson, who was pitching on his 39th birthday.
Michael Kelly (1-0) threw a perfect eighth inning and Mason Miller pitched a perfect 1-2-3 ninth for Oakland’s first save this season.
Texas went ahead when Marcus Semien doubled on the first pitch from Alex Wood and Josh Smith hit an RBI single on Wood’s sixth.
Jonah Heim homered in the second inning and Evan Carter in the seventh against Mitch Spence.
Wood left with a calf cramp following four innings.
Elsewhere, the Cubs crushed the Padres 5-1, the White Sox defeated the Guardians 7-5, the Tigers tamed the Pirates 5-3, the Orioles routed the Red Sox 7-1, the Yankees mastered the Marlins 3-2, the Cardinals beat the Phillies 3-0 and the Dodgers downed the Twins 6-3.
The Brewers bested the Reds 9-5, the Blue Jays beat the Mariners 5-3, the Braves pipped the Mets 6-5, the Diamondbacks overcame the Rockies 3-2, the Rays stung the Angels 6-4, the Nationals downed the Giants 5-3 and the Royals edged the Astros 4-3 in 10 innings.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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